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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29149758">Rebellion</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercuryBlade/pseuds/MercuryBlade'>MercuryBlade</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Anal Sex, Blow Jobs, Cunnilingus, Ends with M/M, Hand Jobs, M/M, Multi, Penis In Vagina Sex, Porco PoV, Starts with a F/M/M, Threesome - F/M/M, Two soldiers sharing a girl, m/m - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 09:08:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>11,671</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29149758</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercuryBlade/pseuds/MercuryBlade</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Esteemed Warriors. Honorary Marleyans. Eldians. Porco and Reiner are living symbols of Marley's military might. They endure all the complications that entails as the deepest parts of Marley's soul is projected onto them: Hatred, blame, disgust, desire and hope.</p><p>This story takes place in the same timeline as my main story "The Problem with Peace" but is stand-alone. Some of the events of Reiner's life in "The Problem with Peace" are referenced in this story. Although it's not necessary to enjoy this story, the relevant chapters that give Reiner's background are "The Other Side of War" and "Toy Soldier."</p><p>Both Porco and Reiner are 19 but close to turning 20; this starts prior to Reiner being assigned mentorship of his warrior candidates so he's not currently taking care of kids.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Reiner Braun &amp; Porco Galliard, Reiner Braun/Original Female Character/Porco Galliard, Reiner Braun/Porco Galliard</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>The Problem With Peace</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Wingman</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Porco and Reiner receive Marleyan medals of commendation for their actions during wartime.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Porco heard the drumroll of artillery fire rolling closer, close enough that the flesh of his Titan started to convulse around him from the sound. He realized with a sinking feeling that a curtain of death was coming for him and he wasn’t going to outrun it. As the leading edge hit, the shockwave nearly wiped him out him first, hitting him like a massive fist and making him puke inside his Titan. He was choking and running, blind and deafened. With what was left of his vision, he saw something overshadow him and then he was hoisted off the ground, the percussive blasts not silenced but muffled.</p><p>He had almost no time to get used to this new reality before he felt himself spun, so hard it was like he was back in paratrooper training, enduring the g-force of a mid air tumble. The spin resolved itself into overwhelming forward momentum and he tightened his limbs to his body, instinctively. He had one second to be astounded before he was airborne and hurtling over the enemy front lines, his claws out and sinking into their heavy artillery. The next few minutes felt instantaneous and like an eon as he tore through their howitzers half blind and guided mostly by his feet and the vibrations he could feel in the pads under his claws. He kept clawing and biting until the sound faded to a distant roar and then when he’d done as much damage as he could he ran back the way he came under mortar fire from their reforming defence.</p><p>He found the Armoured face down in the dirt; torn apart by shells. He streaked towards him, screaming in his Titan: “Braun!”</p><p>When he got close he noticed steam coming from the Armoured’s nape as Reiner ejected and he felt relief; only momentary because he could hear the blasts start up again as they filled in the gap he’d created by re-aiming intact nearby artillery. He had seconds at most.</p><p>He saw Reiner emerge, crawling out of the ropey flesh of his titan, and could only slow down to allow him the chance to grab onto his mane. Once he had, Porco ran, feeling the burn of more mortar on his back and the rumble of another barrage. This time with his Titan fully intact he was able to outrun it, get out of no man’s land and nimbly dodge the friendly trenches on the other side.</p><p>He didn’t stop until they were past the support and reserve trenches, and then counted out a dozen angled kilometres to get out of the effective area of the enemy’s long range artillery. This was doctrine; they always retreated out of the range of artillery at an angle, not straight out.</p><p>When they were clear Porco finally pulled himself out of his reeking Titan and jumped down from the nape. He was sick again and spat out bile into the dirt, then put his thumb against one nostril, then the other, blowing out snot.</p><p>Reiner managed to jump down from Porco’s Titan, immediately falling over, his flesh steaming from healed shrapnel wounds. They huffed and ignored each other while they got their bodies under control.</p><p>Porco watched Reiner eventually stand up.</p><p>“You fucking idiot!” Porco punched Reiner’s shoulder. “What the hell?”</p><p>“It worked!” Reiner’d looked him over and then grabbed his neck, laughing. Porco laughed too.</p><p>They were alive. Reiner had sheltered Porco when he’d been surprised by enemy fire power in a location Military Intelligence had assured them enemy firepower should not have been… and then fucking tossed him into a fucking bank of enemy artillery. And Porco had taken it out before it could turn Reiner into pulp.</p><p>“That was fucking awesome!” Porco yelled.</p><p>“Why are you yelling?” Reiner transferred his grip on Porco’s neck to his head and pressed his forehead against Porco’s, still chuckling. They stayed like that for a long time, their breath heaving, so close that Porco could smell Reiner’s soap even under the stink of dirt and sweat and Titan funk.</p><p>
  <span class="Apple-converted-space">Porco wiped itching blood from his chin and neck; it’d come from his ears. "The Artillery blew out my eardrums." He said and he could tell from the grating in his vocal cords that he was saying it harder than usual. </span>
</p><p>He looked up and saw Reiner staring at him. They stared at eachother—grinning like idiots, feeling some sort of way—then Reiner glanced past him.</p><p>Porco turned. Zeke was nearing in a Jeep with medical crew and Porco hadn't even heard it. He didn’t know why but he suddenly found Zeke’s face profoundly irritating.</p><p>Porco ran towards Zeke. "What the fuck happened? There wasn't supposed to be any enemy ordinance in that area!" </p><p>Zeke stared at Porco impassively. "A Military Intelligence oversight." </p><p>"That is more than a fucking oversight! Why are we headed by people who can't think their way out of a one hedge maze--" </p><p>Reiner caught Porco's chest. "Porco. We must have made an error." </p><p>Porco rounded on him, furious. "We made the error? Are you fucking kidding me you goddamn boot licker?"</p><p>"Did the Southers get out alright?" Reiner asked Zeke, ignoring Porco, to Porco's increasing fury.</p><p>"For the most part, only 17 casualties." Zeke replied.</p><p>—</p><p>Reiner and Porco were told later that the 17 casualties weren't in the platoon Reiner'd served in. Porco had watched Reiner absorb the news without much change in his expression, except briefly closing his eyes with relief. It was another part of Reiner's life Porco was completely locked out of, not that it mattered, except insofar as Reiner had come back harder and better and now almost impossible to beat at hand-to-hand combat.</p><p>Porco seethed for days over Reiner's absurd attempt to deflect blame for the complete failure of Military Intelligence onto <em>them. </em>Goddamn asshole zealot.</p><p>A week later they learned their conduct earned them a Marleyan medal of commendation. Which had calmed Porco's fury. Even if they weren't competent enough to avoid getting two Titans nearly killed on what should have been a routine mission accompanying Infantry, at least they'd acknowledged that Reiner and him had gone above and beyond to pull Marley's fat out of the fire.</p><p>After it was awarded one of the Marleyan diplomats decided to gift them with a stay in his mansion in Liberio so that they could attend a weeklong gala event in their honour. This was a diplomat with ties to the Tyburs that was particularly fond of them and the program. Porco already knew that Zeke And Reiner were acquainted with the family, being the program’s War Chief and Vice War Chief.</p><p>Porco had spent most of the time at the Gala shoved in a corner, looking at the medal he’d been awarded in its lacquered box. It wasn’t so much the recognition—since it they’d both been recognized, it sort of cheapened it—but it represented the Marleyan Brass acknowledging they'd fucked up and him and Reiner had pulled off a near miracle in a backhanded way. Even if they never publicly admitted it. He also liked remembering the team work, him and Reiner had done it together and the open fucking grin on Reiner’s face. Porco liked that grin and his laugh, but he almost never saw it so he usually settled for pissing Reiner off. A pissed off Reiner was better than a miserable Reiner, who inevitably laid his tar pits of misery everywhere he went. Porco ended up getting sucked into them like some kind of tragic primordial animal.</p><p>Because of his desire to not be part of the glittering, chattering festivities, Porco ended up sitting at the wall with all the bored husbands who were tired of the gossip. He would talk about sports and war and what it was like to pilot a Titan. Even those Marleyans who were more aloof and bitchy—not all were, but a fair amount—would end up leaning forward with fascination when he talked about that.</p><p>Pieck stayed for as long as was polite, then left to relax and sleep. It was always her priority during leave.</p><p>Zeke was always surrounded by old women. He would entertain them with sanitized war stories, patiently tolerate their flirting and lead them in waltzes when the dancing started. Porco did not know how he could stand it, but he supposed they were the best source of contacts and information. Both of which Zeke had a fondness for.</p><p>Reiner, on the other hand, was inevitably surrounded by younger women, who giggled incessantly, fought over who got to hang off his arm and made a nuisance of themselves. Porco took this personally.</p><p>On the second day, Porco noticed that Reiner had taken a particular interest in one of the girls that constantly fluttered around him. To the casual observer it wasn’t obvious which one. He would flirt in a continuous benign manner with all the girls, but there was one who he was positively chilly too, except when he’d corner her and whisper to her for minutes at a time and abruptly leave her. The girl would be left flustered and flushed, her fingers lightly brushing her décolletage.</p><p>At some point this happened and almost immediately after Reiner bowed out, which wasn’t unusual because he went to bed early. He didn’t stay in bed, but he went to bed early. And then after an hour nap, he’d get out of bed, wander around for a bit, then sleep another hour or so, then get up and wander some more. All. Fucking. Night. Porco had fantasied about murdering him just for his shitty sleeping habits.</p><p>Porco floated closer to the girls, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. Very soon after Reiner had left, the girl left too, with all of the other girls kicking up a fuss because she was bowing out early and she usually never. At least according to them.</p><p>Porco narrowed his eyes at this.</p><p>It wasn’t until the second night that this happened that he put two and two together.</p><p>On that night Porco rationalized he needed to make sure Reiner wasn’t being tailed and also since he suspected that the other Warrior was up to no good it was his duty as his colleague to find out what that was. Which was why he followed that rat bastard when he skulked out to do his criminal activities.</p><p>The mansion was large and fashionable enough to have its own interior elevator; from watching the brass dial at the top, Porco discovered Reiner was going to the top floor. Which was definitely not their floor.</p><p>He nonchalantly stood in the lobby, reading a newspaper and waiting for the girl to arrive. Which she did. And go to the top floor. Which she also did.</p><p>Porco waited a bit in the lobby to make sure no one else was aware of the shenanigans going on and then took the stairs.</p><p>At the top floor, the sixth floor in fact, Porco entered a hall leading to several rooms. He listened at each door; all but one were empty. Luckily the mansion had large, antiquated locks and he was able to look through the keyhole.</p><p>Fifteen minutes later he was in the ensuite of one of the other empty rooms, desperately trying to relieve the pressure inside him.</p><p>Forty-five minutes later he was back at the Gala on his sixth glass of champagne.</p><p>Porco felt a heavy hand hit his shoulder. Reiner was standing beside him but facing the other direction. “I know you followed me.”</p><p>Porco stiffened. He was about to protest when Reiner leaned close. “Join us. Tomorrow.” Reiner stared at him. "I'll see you then, unless you chicken out." He said, then walked off.</p><p>Porco didn’t stare after him; instead he swallowed his champagne quickly and put the glass down on a bus-boy’s tray. “I'm not going to chicken out you son of a bitch.” He said to Reiner, long after the man had left.</p><p> </p><p>—</p><p> </p><p>The next day Porco knocked on the door to the room and Reiner ushered him inside.</p><p>The room was pristine, the trim board and dividers on the walls were a smooth flawless white, with vibrant panels of wine red wall fabric embossed with velvet flocking in curling patterns, none of the dingy wallpaper and tack wood of the ghetto. Porco nodded his approval. Very nice.</p><p>Reiner stopped him, his hand on Porco’s chest. "Do you understand what's happening?"</p><p>"Yeah. I'm not an idiot." Porco said. "We're sharing a girl."</p><p>“You can handle this? And all the fallout?”</p><p>Porco’s nostrils flared. “If you can handle it, I can handle it.”</p><p>Reiner shook his head, chuckling. “Of course.” He stepped aside and let Porco enter the room. “Tell me if you want to stop.”</p><p>“Pfft.” Porco scoffed. “I’ll outlast you, moron.”</p><p>The girl was already naked on the bed, reading a magazine on her stomach with her feet in the air. Porco didn’t know her name but he was aware that she was the older daughter—about the same age as them—of the diplomat who owned the mansion they were currently privileged to stay at. Which meant they were definitely imposing on his hospitality. She was gorgeous: a figure like a pinup, long honey blond hair and dark eyes in a heart shaped face. As he came closer she looked up, sat up, her breasts swaying with the motion and then laid back on bed, cocking her head to one side and appraising him. “You’re very pretty.” She said finally.</p><p>Porco grit his teeth, there was a certain Marleyan arrogance to her which almost immediately irritated him. But still, she was beautiful. And she thought he was pretty. He preened briefly, then scowled at her.</p><p>She stood up and walked over to Reiner, hugging him and pulling him down for a kiss.</p><p>Porco fidgeted, feeling ignored. After a moment he decided to plop himself down one of the couches in the sitting area.</p><p>The girl broke away from Reiner and pulled an open bottle of gin from the side table, taking a swig as she just invited herself into Porco’s lap. He sat up straighter, a little startled and she pressed her lips against his, opening her mouth and the gin trickled into his.</p><p>He slipped his hand up her back to her neck, pulling her tighter against him so he could kiss her more forcefully. She in turn stripped his tie of its knot and started to unbutton his over-shirt, slipping her hands underneath the sides and rubbing circles on his chest. Porco melted at just being touched alone. It’d been six months for him; six months since his last girl told him she liked him too much to lose him in ten years, so she’d rather lose him right then.</p><p>The girl kept feeding him gin and they slowly made out and got drunk together. It was fun, Porco thought, although Reiner lurked in the back of his mind like a black cloud and he wondered how it would proceed from this point. Would he be expected to screw Reiner? The thought made him conflicted. He could probably do it, maybe. Certainly if Reiner could do it, he could do it.</p><p>Eventually she got out of his lap and he realized she was annoyed that he’d zoned out a bit. She went over to Reiner. Porco frowned at them both.</p><p>They lost no time, he pulled off his great coat and deposited it on a chair, she unbuckled his belt and got on her knees in front of him on the bed, pulling him out of his pants.</p><p>Porco was relieved to note that they were about the same size. Reiner might be longer. Might.</p><p>Reiner unbuttoned his over-shirt as she got to work. Porco watched her stroke Reiner and the act was sort of thrilling because it was a point of no return. He was, really, watching two other people have sex. He was going to eventually have sex with them as well. And he wasn’t in a backstreet movie theatre, it was live. He could smell their arousal mingling and it was doing him in too. </p><p>When Reiner finished unbuttoning his shirt, he pressed the girl forward onto her back on the bed and slid into her. She made a mewl of pleasure and Reiner grimaced, grabbing her by the throat in one hand and lifting her hips up off the bed in the other. Once positioned, he began.</p><p>Fury spat off of Reiner as he fucked, his shoulder muscles and arms so tight Porco thought his skin might tear open. Porco was stunned into stillness, it felt more like a murder than sex and he was almost about to say something or do something to stop it when he looked at the girl.</p><p>She was eating it up.</p><p>Her hands were around Reiner’s wrists as he choked her but there was no way she could fight him off and her face was contorted in a grimace. Yet… she was raising her hips to meet his thrusts to get him as deep inside her as she could and her ankles were locked around his waist.</p><p>Porco watched, mesmerized as Reiner did her like he was fit to break her damn spine in half. Eventually he saw a tremor start in her lower belly, her thighs trembling, and she managed to squeal and thrash despite his hold, bucking her hips against him desperately.</p><p>When she’d subsided, Reiner waved him over. “Come here, Porco.”</p><p>Porco stepped over. The whole scene was almost otherworldly but he was drunk enough to be willing to just flow with it.</p><p>“Unbuckle your pants and kneel on the bed.”</p><p>Command presence, they called it and Reiner had it. Porco obeyed without even a snarky word, unbuckling his pants and pulling down his underwear, kneeling on the bed. Reiner grabbed the girl by the hair and pulled her up; she fumbled forward on her hands and knees. She yelped and he slapped her hard on the ass. “Suck him off.”</p><p>Porco was astonished at his casual cruelty and even more astonished when the girl crawled over to him and without protest. Then started to lick him up and down his length.</p><p>In an instant everything so very real that even the alcohol haze couldn’t dull it. Porco was torn between the pleasure of what she was doing, which was intense, and that he didn’t even know her name, in fact she hadn’t even known he existed an hour ago. This was a level of impersonal that he was finding unsettling.</p><p>Then he looked up and saw that same superior smirk on Reiner’s face from when the man won the Armoured from Porco as a boy. It was etched in fire in Porco’s memory.</p><p>Porco grabbed the girl’s hair and started to fuck her mouth. “You like being used by Eldians?” He snarled. She gagged a little around him, looking up at him and nodding, drool streaking her chin. Reiner resumed screwing her from behind, rocking her into her and her into Porco with force. Porco was furious with himself for hesitating for a single second and allowing Reiner a single opening for that shit eating grin.</p><p>Eventually Porco felt Reiner’s hand on his naked shoulder: his rough, calloused palm warm against Porco’s skin. Reiner stroked his hand up Porco’s neck and buried his fingers in the longer hair above Porco’s undercut, continuing to tease the hair behind Porco’s ear with little swipes of his thumb. Porco glanced at him, and Reiner gave him a genuine smile, as if urging him on.</p><p>Between the girl swallowing him to the hilt and watching Reiner drilling into her from the other end—the larger man flushed and messy with arousal—Porco had been hanging on the edge, but, unbelievably, it was Reiner’s small encouragement that started to tip him over. He thrust into the girl’s mouth, his hand behind her head to force himself deeper and spilled.</p><p>The girl gagged and yelped a protest and Porco blinked down at her, his own breathing laboured in the aftermath. She pulled back, choking a bit, his cum smeared all over her chin and lips and glared at him.</p><p>His brow drew. Had he violated some kind of gang-bang etiquette? Before she could say anything, Reiner grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back so she was sitting in his lap. Without pausing in his thrusts he kissed her, “you’ll take what we give you, fifthly little Marleyan breeder.”</p><p>Amazingly all the anger seemed to drain from her at that. She moaned, muffled by Reiner’s mouth and began to squirm against him. Porco’s lip curled in baffled disgust. Apparently he hadn’t given his actions appropriate context? Fucking <em>people.</em> They were incomprehensible sometimes. Goddammit.</p><p>Porco watched as Reiner started to lick the girl’s face clean of his cum. He was startled for a second, then the blood rushed to his face and his groin. Something about the sight of the bigger man licking <em>him </em>off of her was making him sweat.</p><p>Reiner’s hand snaked down the girl’s waist and cupped her sex, rubbing with firm strokes. Within a minute she was shuddering against him and squeaking even harder. Her ridiculous childish noises made Porco want to slap her, instead he just settled for watching their fun sullenly and ignoring the fact that he was getting hard again; or rather ignoring why, which had everything to do with wishing he was the one in Reiner’s lap. Ridiculous notion, really. Fucking ridiculous. Porco folded his arms over his chest and glared a hole in the headboard.</p><p>When she was done Reiner dumped her down onto the bed in an unceremonious heap like he was throwing garbage on a curb. The girl seemed to love this, curling into a dejected ball and purring contentedly. Once again Porco was amazed at Reiner’s ability to convey icy contempt while doing apparently everything the girl was wanting. He also noticed Reiner was still hard. He hadn’t finished.</p><p>“We’re not done yet.” Reiner caught her by the scruff and pulled her out of her ball and ducked down to eye level with her. “He fucks you now. Go on, get that ass up.”</p><p>She glanced back at Porco and did as she was told, kneeling in front of him. Porco closed his eyes, shaking his head. “Goddamn.” This was almost too much.</p><p>“Are you saving yourself for someone special?” Reiner smirked.</p><p>Porco sneered at him. “Fuck you, Braun.” <em>Yeah right. </em>Someone special was not something Warriors got; not when they had an expiry date. Spurred by Reiner’s needling, Porco pressed himself against her opening, and teased around it. Porco frowned. There was a threshold he was crossing here, an acceptance of a certain reality. He hesitated to take the plunge. After a few rotations, she decided she’d had it with his indecision and simply thrust herself back, enveloping him. He slid in easily; she was absolutely liquid. He’d never had such a ready girl before and in a second she was already breathing hard and writhing against him. He leaned over her back and let her move, noticing for the first time that she was really quite small even compared to him. With her slick warmth around him—and also knowing in the back of his mind that Reiner had just been there and that thought was both aggravating and making him even harder—and he decided that reality wasn’t so bad.</p><p>“Don’t come in her.” Reiner warned. “You don’t want to make the same mistake twice. Particularly not now.”</p><p>Porco frowned, incised that Reiner was lecturing him. He wasn’t a virgin; even if the weirdness of the situation was making him act more indecisive than usual. “Fuck you Braun.” He repeated.</p><p>Improbably Reiner laughed and shook his head. “Maybe if you’re good.”</p><p>Porco glared at him for his ambiguous answer. “What the fuck does that mean?”</p><p>The girl seemed to lose her patience with their squabble, “Could we finish here first?” She pulled Reiner closer, swallowing him as she had Porco earlier. Porco was usually fairly gentle and he wasn’t inclined to change his style but he frankly wondered if she could feel anything after the harpooning Reiner had given her if he didn’t at least try to get aggressive. Then he noticed Reiner was being a lot more gentle too and he figured he was fine.</p><p>Porco kept a steady rhythm but having already come, he had some trouble climaxing a second time; Reiner seemed strangely reluctant to finish at all, she on the other hand seemed to want to keep going even after her third or fourth like a little dynamo. Eventually Reiner just upended her and ate her out until she convulsed and then kept going until she was begging him to stop. Even then, he pushed it. Porco remembered wincing at the sound of her fingers tearing at Reiner's hair as she peaked a final time and then flipped over, one hand hiding herself from him, the other pushing at his head, tears in her eyes. “No more.”</p><p>He patted her head. “Good. Next time be more reasonable in your expectations.”</p><p>“Goddamn.” Porco said, staring at Reiner. “You’re terrifying.”</p><p>Reiner snorted at him. He laced his fingers in the girl’s hair and now that she’d recovered a bit from the overstimulation she stretched like a cat, smiling at him languidly. “That was fun.”</p><p>Reiner picked her hand up and kissed her fingers. “Glad you enjoyed it.”</p><p>Porco felt somewhat left out and annoyed by their affection. So it wasn’t entirely impersonal; she’d likely been okay with Porco because on some level she trusted Reiner and whomever Reiner chose. That didn’t help his annoyance though. He didn’t like being someone’s tool.</p><p>He brooded and watched Reiner stroke the girl's hair until she fell asleep and then tuck her in under a throw, all with paradoxical gentleness.</p><p>When he was done, he turned to Porco and started to redress him, pulling up his pants and rebuckling his belt. Porco stared at him. “What are you doing? I can dress myself.”</p><p>“Stop me.” Reiner challenged.</p><p>Porco just frowned, confused and did nothing as Reiner rebuttoned and tucked in his shirt then knotted his tie again. “Pieck did this for you right?”</p><p>Porco flushed. He was right of course. “Why are you doing this?”</p><p>Reiner shrugged. He then pulled his pack of smokes out of his great coat pocket from where it was thrown on a chair and walked out to the balcony.</p><p>Porco frowned at the other man’s broad back and then scooted after him, fully intending to bum some smokes off of him.</p><p>When he joined Reiner on the balcony, the night air was warm and humid. It smelled of bay laurel from the hedges below them and lilac. Porco took a deep breath and watched Reiner as he sat down on the balcony, dangling his legs over the edge—there was a large the space between the balcony floor and the bottom of the railing—and leaning his arms on the railing cross bar. He was lighting one of his smokes, inhaling slowly as he did.</p><p>After a moment Porco joined him. Together they sat side by side and stared at the harbor. Light from the city danced on the waves of inky dark water.Despite being semi-visible to the public, neither of them wore their armbands. The Marleyan girl fucked to exhaustion and smeared with their seed in the bedroom behind them was a bomb waiting to go off. If they were found there wasn’t much more they could do to make it worse for themselves.</p><p>“She’s getting too attached to me.” Reiner explained, waving his smoke. “So I needed to make it more impersonal. Thanks for the help.”</p><p>“I’ve never had a Marleyan girl before. Do we get executed now or something?”</p><p>Reiner laughed. “No. Everyone just looks the other way unless she complains.”</p><p>“Is she going to complain?”</p><p>Reiner smirked and looked back through the double doors. “What do you think? She’s probably going to be looking back at this fondly when we’re dead and gone and she’s in her seventies with grand kids.” He turned back to look over Liberio, staring out at the harbour, his eyes unfocused. “The real problem is stopping. That’s the dangerous part of the game. Zeke’s pissed at me for playing it.” He frowned. “When it’s not my choice it’s okay; but the moment I’m choosing, everyone gets furious.”</p><p>Porco said nothing. He felt an echo of the sick pain he’d felt waking and watching Reiner suffering nightmares the night he’d returned from Alder. </p><p>“Zeke deserves this.” Reiner said. “He made me leave Annie behind.”</p><p>Porco would normally have piped up with something about him leaving Marcel but the surreality of the last hour left him incapable of building up a good head of anger. He never even considered that Reiner resented Zeke. He was still stunned by witnessing Reiner being anything but blandly obedient. It was like Porco’d cracked through the earth and fell spinning into an upside-down twilight realm. Even Porco’s sarcasm was failing him.</p><p>They sat in silence, watching the boats glide along the surface of the harbour and the distant lights of the buoys out on sea. After awhile Porco glanced back at Reiner and realized he was hiding his eyes behind his hand, his face twisted by some horrific emotion that Porco couldn’t place.</p><p>“I fucking hate myself like this.” He said, his voice strangled.</p><p>Porco frowned. “Why do you do it?”</p><p>“What else is there for us? At least Gail’s enjoying herself.”At the admission whatever had gripped him seemed to ease. He dropped his hand and went back to watching the boats, this time more subdued.</p><p>Gail. So that was the girl’s name. Porco said nothing more. He figured whatever thing Reiner was struggling with had to do with Alder and the less said about that the better.</p><p>“Do you ever regret joining?” Reiner asked. “I do.”</p><p>Porco’s eyes went wide. Everything they’d just done, everything they’d said… and now Reiner was adding treason on top. Porco’s first thought was that he was being baited to expose himself. But he and Reiner had shared in the atrocity they’d left in the bed—the violation of the most fundamental taboo underpinning their reality—and that girl fucked to ruin by two Warriors felt like a shield, granting them a weightless moment of simpatico: Marley was incapable of getting in between them now.</p><p>“Yeah.” Porco said. Of course he fucking did. When he was a kid, he wanted to become a Titan because his brother wanted to become a Titan and he didn’t want to be left behind. Now he was an adult he was slapped with how fucking raw the deal was every time he lost a girlfriend to the thirteen year curse. He had started to loathe everyone involved, including his parents who’d never once tried to stop him—or hadn’t tried to stop him enough—but he couldn’t tell anyone any of this. And to top it off he’d lost his brother, because of the dumbass right in front of him. The anger usually just festered until he could bait Reiner into a fight to relieve it. But he never got to confess. Not until that moment. “I regret it.” </p><p>“Becoming a monster for Marley in order to redeem our sins.” Reiner leaned over the rail, tapping ash into the garden far below. If Porco listened carefully, he could hear the party still going—a quiet rumble of music and conversation—on the other side of the house. “They call us devil-bloods and yet they pant after us like dogs in heat. We have to be stronger, faster, smarter, braver, tougher, in every way superior. We have to do everything they say and also take responsibility for being forced to do it.” Reiner closed his eyes. “I’m supposed to obey Gail but also know better.” He took a drag on his cigarette. “What happens when I choose not to know better?”</p><p>“Hm.” Porco realized that Reiner was angry, just like him. This was his way of acting out: fucking when he knew better, but had plausible deniability. They were supposed to give Marleyans whatever they wanted, right? Didn’t that include a diplomat’s horny daughter? How could Zeke argue with it without betraying the fundamental hypocrisy of the entire system? And Zeke hated sounding stupid. Reiner had found a loophole in the logic around him; a dangerous one… and he was using it to fight his own personal war against Marley’s bullshit.</p><p>And Porco had never even noticed. Not until now.</p><p>Maybe Porco’d never forgive him for Marcel, but… it was obvious Reiner wasn’t an oblivious zealot, happy with his lot, which was what had always really pissed Porco off more than anything. The idea that Reiner somehow had escaped the horror of it all into a perfect, blissful subservience to the Motherland.</p><p>The old Reiner Porco knew, the one that toadied up to pompous, imbecilic, creepy old men—like Alder in fact—and parroted ridiculous lies with smug self-righteousness, the one Porco had despised, was not beside him, maybe he was gone completely. In his place was a man who was capable of somehow rebelling by obeying.</p><p>Porco remembered how Reiner’d threatened him with exposure as a traitor when they were kids, just because he was pissed at Porco. He’d always had that kind of scary ruthlessness about him, being able to understand and use the rules—spoken and unspoken—to his own advantage. Although this was truly something else. Dangerous, psychotic, destructive, hateful, angry, seditious… <em>and really damn hot</em><b>.</b></p><p>“Want to do it again?” Reiner asked.</p><p>“Yeah.” Porco smiled, he waved for Reiner to share his smoke. “Fuck. Why not?”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Zeke *looks up from sipping his tea*: I sense a disturbance in the force.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Managing Expectations</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Reiner deals with a jealous boyfriend. Porco makes his move.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>No.” Reiner said in response to Gail’s request.</p><p>Porco watched the exchange with amused interest. He was laying back on the bed, his head pillowed on his hands, waiting for the two of them to come to an agreement over what to do with him. As it should be. He grinned.</p><p>“It’s been obvious since the first time he took part.” Gail retorted.</p><p>“When I agreed to this, you said you wouldn’t make me do anything I wasn’t willing to. I’m not willing to do this.” Reiner said. “It’ll be boring, anyway. It’ll take hours to get him ready—“</p><p>“You think I can’t handle you?” Porco snapped.</p><p>Reiner closed his eyes. “Porco get your ego out of this—“</p><p>“I’ll do it.” Porco eyed Gail. “On one condition. I want you at the same time.” He grinned at her. “I always wanted to try that.”</p><p>“Perfect.” Gail grinned back.</p><p>Reiner shook his head at Porco. “You’re an idiot.”</p><p>Porco just smiled at him smugly and started to strip off his pants. When he’d told Reiner he’d never had a Marleyan girl, it was the truth. But not the whole truth. “You got something for this?”</p><p>“Top drawer.” Gail waved at the side table.</p><p>Porco pulled open the drawer and found a bottle of lubricant. Some sort of plant based gel. Porco looked at it as he flopped down on the bed and waved Reiner over. He’d gotten over the weirdness of the situation fairly rapidly, now he was excited to try things he’d always wondered about.</p><p>When Reiner had finally wandered over, he knelt beside Porco, looking at him curiously.</p><p>“You’ve done this before.” Reiner sounded shocked.</p><p>Porco grinned back at him. Finally he’d managed to take him by surprise. “Yeah. Have you?”</p><p>Reiner nodded.</p><p>Gail joined them on the bed, opening her robe. She kissed Porco first and Porco slid her robe off her shoulders, kissing down her neck as he stroked her breasts. Reiner was slower on the uptake, but he slid his hands around Porco from behind and pressed his mouth to his neck. Porco’s hair stood on end at that; Gail was nice, but something about Reiner gave him more of a rush. He was already excited as hell, hard before either of them had touched him.</p><p>He felt Reiner’s hand circle his waist, stroking him from behind; He felt coolness on his backside and then Reiner slowly inserting a finger. It was a stretch—it had been awhile—but Porco relaxed into it, wincing slightly at the sting. Gail got on her knees in front of him, swallowing him without any preamble and the sting was completely forgotten. In fact he didn’t even notice Reiner’s careful build up until it was too late, and he was alreadysliding in, hilt deep.</p><p>Porco leaned forward over Gail’s back, groaning. It still stung a bit, but between the fullness and Gail’s tongue, the overwhelming feeling was not pain. He stopped her. “It’s going to be over pretty quick if you keep doing that.”</p><p>Porco grinned over his shoulder at Reiner. “Is that all you got?”</p><p>Reiner threw him a look of irritation.</p><p>Porco beamed at him, eating up his discomfort. Reiner grabbed Porco’s hips and started to thrust. He did not look like he was enjoying himself at all—which Porco found endlessly amusing—but he was powering through it. To his credit, Reiner was an excellent top; he set a rhythm like a metronome and Porco was sorely tempted to forget Gail’s existence, get Reiner to do a reach around—because he couldn’t come only from being topped—and just enjoy the thrill of their physical connection, no complications, no female input. It reminded him of that moment where Reiner’d thrown him and he’d taken flight and he'd felt seized by the freedom of it. Maybe Reiner had the same thought because after a bit his breath got jagged and his tempo became a bit erratic, grabbing Porco’s hips and thrusting harder. Porco grinned viciously. <em>Oh no, Princess, you’re enjoying yourself doing something filthy and degenerate.</em> Genuinely enjoying himself for the first time too, by Porco’s estimation.</p><p>“Hey.” Gail barked.</p><p>Porco blinked his eyes open, suffering a brief flash of annoyance. He frowned and waved her in, lifting an arm so she could settle in underneath them both. Luckily she was either hugely excited from watching them or had already fingered herself so she didn’t need him to do much of anything; she guided him in, lifting her hips up to meet his thrusts. As irritating as he found her, he could appreciate that she was a go-getter.</p><p>There was a moment of indecision as the three of them tried to figure out a rhythm that worked. Without words they settled on Reiner setting the pace while Gail moved to receive and Porco just went with it, which suited him fine.</p><p>After a few seconds like that—pinned between the two of them—Porco was sold on Gail’s involvement. Another few seconds and he was kissing her, moaning into her mouth and starting to think stupid things, like he was in love with her because he felt so damn good. But the stupidest was that he most definitely wanted to blow inside her and get her knocked up. </p><p>“I’ll put devil spawn inside you.” He’d growled into her ear and her eyes went wide in horror and desire, bucking harder against him.</p><p>“Yes.” She gasped.</p><p>The change in her movements threw off Reiner, who had to steady himself and decided to lean forward, wrapping an arm around Porco’s chest, his face pressed into Porco’s neck. He gasped like he’d just finished a marathon, all of his previous control gone, now he was seeking his own pleasure and Porco knew it—he took particular delight in having shattered Reiner’s professional detachment.</p><p>Reiner had said including him was supposed to make things impersonal but with both of them grinding against him desperately it was feeling more and more like the intimacy of a team sport. He caught the small of Gail’s back, kissing her, getting every inch in, “I’m going to breed you.”</p><p>“Please.” She begged, nuzzling his neck.</p><p>It was this moment that rattled him most when he looked back because he knew they had both been done in by their hormones—following a primordial urge that was a hell of a lot more powerful than political context—and how close he’d come to disaster. Reiner assured him later that he’d watched Gail take a Silphium tincture, so she wasn’t stupid and leaving things to chance. But still, it freaked Porco to know how fucking badly he’d wanted it and how much he had been willing to risk to get it <em>in that moment</em>.</p><p>With Gail clawing at his hips to keep him in, he moved away from Reiner to focus on Gail, covering her completely and matching his thrusts to hers as he moaned in her ear some stupid gibberish about the Eldian Empire.</p><p>It ended up being Reiner who ruined their fun and saved the day. He pulled Porco back into his lap, one big hand stroking Porco, the other angling his head back to kiss him. It took about two seconds and Porco was done in, gasping.</p><p>Reiner switched his attention to Gail, slipping his fingers inside her and rocking them—She groaned and grabbed his hand, curling up towards him—as he spoke to Porco, “Kiss her.”</p><p>Porco broke out of the shaky aftermath and leaned over to kiss Gail and stroke her breasts, teasing her nipples. Reiner huffed against Porco’s ear, kissing his neck, but otherwise completely silent as Porco felt him shudder against him. He breathed like a bellows for a bit then swallowed, “Porco, you have serious impulse control problems.”</p><p>Porco hissed as Reiner withdrew and was about to turn and throw the lecture back in his face when he caught sight of Gail.</p><p>She was staring at him in shock now that the pleasure of the intense connection had receded and Porco immediately recognized the danger of what they’d done and what she’d begged him to do. All of the carefully cultivated excuses and rationales and morality had been blown to pieces. He was no longer Eldian; she was no longer Marleyan. He hadn’t just made her want the fantasy, he’d made her want <em>him</em>. He realized in some more sane world this annoying, forward girl might have been interested in him, they might have even gotten married. And that was about the most dangerous position for him to be in, wanted by a Marleyan whose entire identity revolved around being his victim.</p><p>Looking between her expression of conflict and at the mess he’d left on her stomach, he was hit not just by the near miss but by the tragedy of it. This was as close as he’d ever get to being a father or a girl wanting him to knock her up, Gail begging him to get her pregnant.Some screwed up breeding fetish was as close as he’d ever get because that was all that was left to them, being monsters.</p><p>He remembered what Reiner had said: <em>What else is there for us? </em>In that second, Porco realized exactly why Reiner was always acting, always dominant and never let himself get lost in it enough to even finish. Otherwise it got too personal, fast.</p><p>Porco hid his eyes behind his hand. He was coughing, not sobbing. He was sure of that. <em>Coughing. </em>Like something really painful had suddenly got caught in his throat.</p><p>“This was a bad idea. He’s not a toy.” Reiner said.</p><p>Porco wiped his tearing eyes from the coughing fit and looked between Reiner and Gail.</p><p>Gail looked embarrassed at Reiner’s genuine rebuke. Then she looked at Porco and started to cry, big stupid tears, scrubbing at her eyes with the heels of her hands.</p><p>Porco heard Reiner’s breath quicken. He glanced up, this was the first time he’d seen Reiner nervous since this strange trip had started.</p><p>Porco got it instantly. If she started to regret this it would be easy for that regret to turn into a story about how she’d been forced by “Eldian Devils.” Considering what they’d been doing, it would be an easy sell.</p><p>“Let’s get dressed.” Reiner said. “We’ll go.” He said to Gail.</p><p>She nodded, still quietly sobbing.</p><p> </p><p>—</p><p> </p><p>Just before noon that same day Porco watched a man in a three piece suit talking to Gail from across the yard. Luncheon tables had been set up in the backyard of the Mansion just outside of the gardens and hedge maze. Lots of Marleyan mucky mucks in tuxes were eating finger foods and congratulating each other on how amazingly talented they all were at war. Watching this and trying to settle his nerves from the morning’s scene with Gail, Porco had drank, solidly, since the bar had opened.</p><p>“That’s Gail’s boyfriend. He just came in from a business trip.” Reiner said from beside him, where’d they’d parked themselves by the table full of coils of sausage and cold cuts.</p><p>Porco choked on his glass of straight gin. Gin had been good enough he’d asked for it without embellishment. He wiped his mouth. “What? Seriously?”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>Porco narrowed his eyes at the dishwater blond. Slightly weak chin, watery eyes. “I’m better looking. That’s her type is it?”</p><p>“Stop staring, idiot.” Reiner grabbed Porco’s head and forcibly turned it around. Reiner then leaned against the refreshments table beside him, their shoulders touching. “That’s her parent’s type. And by that I mean that’s the one her parents have chosen for her.” He drank his whiskey. “This is a very sordid affair. And it’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have got you involved. I didn’t know about him until thirty minutes ago. It should be okay though.”</p><p>“Huh?”</p><p>Reiner glanced back at the other man over his shoulder serriptitiously. “Yeah, we can make a deal. We can make this end in a way that works.” He set his empty glass on the table.</p><p>He patted Porco on the shoulder and stalked off towards Gail’s boyfriend, while Porco stared after him in horror. “Were you always this crazy?” He said to no-one.</p><p>“Pokko.”</p><p>Porco was about to object to the nickname. He turned around a sneer on his lips and Pieck’s look stopped him dead. She looked up at him with concern in her dark, soft eyes. “Be careful.” She sighed, looking at Reiner, who was chatting with Gail’s boyfriend, looking like the best of new acquaintances, if you ignored the brief flashes of angry tension spitting off both. “Don’t get involved.”</p><p>Porco frowned. “I do what I want.” He pushed off the light refreshments table and walked towards the open bar, depositing his glass on a bus boy’s tray as he passed. Once at the bar he ordered a whiskey sour. Pieck, who’d decided to tail him, ordered a Bloody Mary.</p><p>As he left, she caught his arm and started to gently steer him away from Reiner and Gail’s boyfriend towards the mansion’s gardens and elaborate hedge maze. Porco sighed and since he didn’t want to get into some kind of tug of war with the small Warrior in public, let her guide him.</p><p>They ambled through the fragrant waist-height maze. It was a clear spring day, just before noon, and the flowers of the diplomat’s garden were starting to bloom: bright splashes of pink, blue and gold. It was quite a nice day, Porco thought, a great day for drama. He chuckled to himself. He was aware bad things could happen, but not to him.</p><p>As he and Pieck walked off together, winding towards the centre of the hedge garden and its promise of privacy, Pieck continued. “Reiner’s self destructing.”</p><p>“Yeah, well, can you blame him?” He took a drink, letting the sweet and sour taste settle on his tongue before swallowing. Normally he wouldn’t even allude to anything to do with Alder and Reiner, but he doubted anyone could overhear and they were far from anyone involved.</p><p>Pieck stopped dead, let him go and held onto her sun hat in a sudden gust of wind. She looked at him, astounded. “You? Sympathetic?”</p><p>He shook his head at her. “I remember the first night. Poor fucking bastard. That man’s a piece of shit.” Regardless of where they were, Porco still didn’t want to say Alder’s name in public. He had a sudden thought, and glanced at Pieck with concern. “He didn’t do anything to you—“</p><p>“No.” Pieck shook her head. “Just likes young men I guess.”</p><p>“Well thank God for that.” Porco grabbed Pieck’s shoulders, squeezing her. “That makes me feel a lot better.” Porco sipped his drink. “It’s one thing for us to have to deal with it. Be uglier if you had to.”</p><p>“Did he…” Pieck trailed off hesitantly.</p><p>Porco shuddered. “Nah. Never got an angle on me.”</p><p>They wandered together in mutually relieved silence—Pieck resting her head on Porco’s shoulder—until they were interrupted by Zeke.</p><p>“Galliard. Finger.” Zeke called from the mouth of the maze. “Pack up. We’re taking a carriage back to head quarters in two hours.”</p><p> </p><p>—</p><p> </p><p>Reiner didn’t return until late that afternoon. Porco had paced their room, worried. He told himself he was just annoyed that Reiner’d gotten an extra few hours out of it. Pieck had eventually come by, and flopped down on Reiner’s bed. They’d played cards together, although it wasn’t as fun without a third person, until Pieck decided to take a nap. Porco’d let her pillow her head on his chest while he stroked her hair and read a newspaper. With her there, he felt calm.</p><p>Eventually Reiner poked his head in, saw Pieck and walked in, shaking her shoulder. “Sorry. I need your help.”</p><p>She blinked sleepily up at him and he held out his hand to help her up. She took it and slipped off of Porco’s chest and stepped out of the bed.</p><p>“What are you doing?” Porco snapped.</p><p>“No time. I got to get this done before the post office closes.” Reiner said over his shoulder, trailed by Pieck, who was yawning and wiping the sleep out of her eyes.</p><p>Porco watched them go and then picked up his newspaper. He re-read the same article about the latest World Series game over and over for an hour before the door opened again.</p><p>Reiner walked in, slapping a stack of photos on the desk and closed the door behind him. Pieck was gone.</p><p>“This should be the end of it.” He announced, sitting down and pulling open one of the drawers. He got out several envelopes and started stuffing them with the photos.</p><p>“What happened?” Porco set his newspaper down.</p><p>“I seduced him.” Reiner said. “They’re going to have a fun marriage. It’ll be a miracle if her parents get grandkids out of it. He’s also a violent sadist. He punched like a Marleyan, though. If it’d been you, I would have been a lot worse off. You could have dismantled me.” Reiner frowned. “Do you need more details?”</p><p>“No.” Porco said quickly.</p><p>“I should have realized you would connect with her.”</p><p>“I didn’t like her.” Porco groused.</p><p>Reiner stared at him. After a moment he titled his chin superciliously. “Porco, anyone you’d fall in love with you’d also have to also dislike. Because otherwise you would be bored to death.”</p><p>Porco sneered at him but decided he probably had a point. “What’s that?” He jerked his chin at the stack of photos.</p><p>Reiner tapped them. “Blackmail. I got Pieck to develop them. Not fun for her, I know. But just in case someone decides to start lying about what happened.” Reiner shoved the photos into the envelope. “Mailing two sets to myself so they’re post dated to today.” Reiner glanced at Porco. “Pieck’s angry with me.”</p><p>“Why?”</p><p>“Because I dragged her best friend into something that could have been serious trouble.” He hesitated. “I’m sorry Porco.”</p><p>“Seduction. Espionage. Blackmail. Is this what creepy little shits who threaten people with accusations of treason become?” Porco felt a little bad that Reiner’s day had been less than stellar and he was making it worse by needling him, but not that bad. Reiner apologizing to him had pissed him off.</p><p>Reiner snorted softly. “I’m going to sort this and go for a run.” Reiner stood up. “Have a lot of ‘not killing an idiot’ tension to get rid of.” He stood and started to strip out of his uniform, getting down to his undershirt and boxers. He hung it in their closet and pulled out shorts from his dresser, slipping them on quickly. He hesitated over the arm band as he slid it back on. Porco knew what he was thinking; it reminded him of everything they’d just gone through. That arm band inspired the weirdest fucking behaviour in people. Sometimes hatred, sometimes admiration, never indifference… and sometimes open hatred and incoherent lust <em>in the same person</em>.</p><p>He stepped towards the door, then stopped and looked back at Porco. Unbelievably Porco could see something like sadness in his eyes, like Reiner pitied <em>him</em>. “What a human tragedy.”</p><p>Porco frowned at him, bolting to his feet. “What does that mean?”</p><p>Reiner didn’t answer. Porco pulled his sweatshirt from its hook and followed him, infuriated. He kept following him as Reiner exited the Warrior compound into the streets of Marleyan Liberio.</p><p>Reiner shook his head at Porco when they arrived at the Post Office but didn’t say anything as Porco leaned up against the outer brick wall to wait for him. As the crowds passed, some people glared—most often the ladies—some men tipped their hats, and he got a few long thoughtful stares, sometimes furious, disgusted and speculating all at once. He presented a facade of stoic indifference to all of them except the friendly greetings, which he returned with a short salute; every Warrior knew it reduced trouble to just ignore the attention for the most part.</p><p>Reiner trotted down the Post office steps past him.</p><p>“You’re not worried they’re going to search your mail?” Porco asked.</p><p>He shook his head. “Nah. I pay extra. They just stamp it and put it back in my box.”</p><p>“You got a whole system worked out.”</p><p>Reiner started walking down the street back to the Warrior Compound. “I’m going up the peak. You want to do that, this late?”</p><p>The total compound was five miles wide and twenty miles long; with mountainous terrain, fields, woods, even a specially built desert area, all provided so they could learn how to control their titans on various types of terrain and learn combat skills while in Titan form. The peak was the highest point in the compound, a small, bare mountain, extremely steep to climb. It was a gruelling run, even for them.</p><p>“You must have a lot of tension.” Porco said.</p><p>“Yes.” Reiner replied.</p><p>Porco shrugged. “Sure.” Something about the day was making him feel subdued. Maybe a run would do him good too.</p><p>Reiner nodded, raised the hood of his sweat shirt and set up a slow jog back to the front gate of the Warrior compound. They waved at the guards as they passed and then just kept going, over the long road of dirt between the different barracks, commissary, mess, office buildings, to the grass beyond and then finally the first slope that marked the beginning of the peak’s trail.</p><p>As he ran Porco chewed over everything that had happened. The frustration at having so much attention, blame and accusation directed at them burned inside him: people spitting on them in disgust and then cornering them in private, getting no guidance because no one could fucking talk about it, even though it was an open secret that everyone knew about, and knowing if they stepped outside any one of the invisible lines they’d be on the chopping block.</p><p>And what about what they needed? They were supposed to be filled with nothing more than bliss at their loving devotion to the Motherland but not even a zealot like Reiner had managed that.</p><p>Porco was definitely not filled with the bliss of service, most days he was filled with enough frustration—sexual, emotional, philosophical—he could murder the very concept of Marley. The idea that created such a hypocritical stupid place full of people who hated him and lusted after him and told him to tell them no and to sacrifice everything and gave him no room for anything he actually wanted.</p><p>He thought about Gail. He <em>had</em> felt a weird connection to her, even though he didn’t like her at all. The thought of her crying upset him and he chewed on that particularly hard, until he started to cough again and the coughing got bad enough he had to stop for a bit.</p><p>Reiner turned around, bowing a bit to get to eye level with him. “Are you okay?”</p><p>Porco nodded as he tried to get his breathing under control.</p><p>“Bullshit. We’ll stop there.” Reiner nodded to a turnoff on the trail. It lead to a small training field with an equipment shed and outhouse at the other end.</p><p>As they walked towards the shed, Reiner took out his smokes and a lighter. He lit one, then handed Porco another and the lighter. Smoking was sort of ridiculous during endurance training—particularly with him coughing for whatever reason—but since they were shifters it also didn’t matter. They walked toward the shed slowly, Porco evening out his breathing and enjoying the sting and wave of numbness from the smoke.</p><p>Once they were at the shed Reiner ground the remains of his cigarette beneath his boot. Porco dropped his own and lifted his foot to do the same.</p><p>Reiner kicked Porco’s heel with his boot, sending him stumbling a bit. Porco glared at him as he regained his balance, “Fuck off.”</p><p>Reiner grinned and did it again. Pissed, Porco kicked him back harder and they stopped dead, exchanging swipes at each other’s shins and ankles, until Porco upped the ante and threw a punch.</p><p>Reiner blocked it and punched back, which Porco also blocked and then went for a guillotine. He managed to almost catch the choke but Reiner stepped through a little too quick, arcing his neck into Porco’s hold and spun out. They were back to squared off. They were fairly evenly matched: Porco reacted and moved faster, but Reiner was stronger with a longer reach.</p><p>Reiner came in with a jab and Porco dodged it, and caught Reiner’s elbow to his temple. It sent him spinning to the shed wall and drove a nail of fury into his gut. “You rat bastard.” Porco hissed.</p><p>“Fights aren’t fair.” Reiner snapped back. “It’s frustrating isn’t it?”</p><p>“Why couldn’t you fight like this when Marcel needed you?” Porco asked, circling Reiner again.</p><p>“Because I was a worthless kid.”</p><p>“You’re right. You were.” Porco said.</p><p>As they beat the ever living crap out of each other, Porco felt like his heart was growing lighter. It felt good to have an outlet for all that frustration, particularly the frustration of not knowing how to <em>be</em>. The face he showed to Marley had to be so content and pristine—or at least as much as he could fake it—and it was exhausting. Even if he didn’t have a solution, at least now he had an outlet that understood <em>why</em> he was angry and accepted it. He finally had a place he could put all the dreck in his heart.</p><p>It was fucking awful it had to be the dumbass responsible for his brother’s death, but Porco guessed that was just his luck.</p><p>At some point they leaned against each other, forehead to forehead, both exhausted. There was no anger, now, they’d blown through that and since Porco’d already got the invitation, he caught Reiner’s lower face between his hands and kissed him.</p><p>Reiner hesitated. “There’s no excuse here.”</p><p>“You always need cover?” Porco prodded him. “What a coward. Just do what you want.”</p><p>Reiner glared, narrowing his eyes. Porco watched the tension of the day ripple through him. Finally he made a decision, grabbing Porco’s jaw and kissing him back.</p><p>Porco closed his eyes, feeling something inside him unwind. No mind games, no invisible lines, no bullshit. They were just both horny; both driven to the ends of their endurance by the insanity they were supposed to manage. Two barely adult men expected to act more restrained than an entire nation.</p><p>Reiner pulled off Porco’s sweatshirt. It wasn’t a cold night but the air on skin still slick form the run did make it feel cold. Reiner kissed his throat, moving down his chest and Porco remembered how, despite the near disaster, Reiner had still taken the time to finish with him. Porco grinned to himself.<em>Yeah, you want me.</em></p><p>He took off Reiner’s sweatshirt as well. Then he urged him down to his knees to even out the height difference between them. Porco bit his neck and Reiner echoed him, grabbing his lower back as they engaged in the kind of aggressive necking that Porco particularly loved.</p><p>They were pretty exposed in the field, but it’d take a hard run or a jeep to get there and at that time of night almost everyone was back in the main compound. The slight chance of being found was thrilling to Porco as was Reiner getting increasingly excited and combative, biting hard enough to make Porco wince and then bite him back just as hard. He seemed a lot more earnest this way, like an overenthusiastic puppy, rather than that cruel, aloof act he put on with Gail.</p><p>When Porco got tired of just making out, he slid his hand down Reiner’s chest, under the waist of his shorts. Reiner seemed to stop dead and Porco was astounded to realize that Reiner was shy; looking at him uncertainly. Porco stared back and realized he really <em>was</em> used to cover, some kind script to follow, and right now Porco was looking at whatever creature Reiner actually was.</p><p>It was a strange moment; Reiner seemed so much more smart and implacable than Porco could have ever imagined he’d grow to be, but right there was that silly kid who didn’t really know how to get what he wanted or even what it was. With one huge difference. Now the contrast was fucking adorable.</p><p>He slid his hand deeper, cupping Reiner—already hard and dripping—and watched the larger man blush and breathe out fast. Porco grinned. “You can like things you know?” Porco said. “And do what you want. Not everything has to be working an angle.”</p><p>Reiner nodded quickly. “I like it.”</p><p>Porco smiled. “Of course you do.” He leaned closer, stroking Reiner in his hand as he went back to biting his neck. “Because I’m doing it.”</p><p>After a few seconds ministration, Reiner decided to return the favour and Porco was rapidly breathing as hard as him, both of them straining against each other. Such a fucking confusing mess of a week, Porco thought, ending with him like this with his former arch nemesis, unapologetically jerking each other off. Everything they’d gone through in the last week—working together to overcome certain death, fucking a Marleyan girl to exhaustion, confessing to treason, breaking so many taboos—came through him all at once. Porco peaked with his head shoved into Reiner’s shoulder and after catching his breath giggled at it all.</p><p>He was brought back to that moment when him and Reiner would have died if Reiner hadn’t belted him like a fastball over the enemy lines to eviscerate their cannons. And them both laughing when they realized they’d survived.</p><p>Porco never remembered which one of them started outright laughing, but they both ended up laughing. Laughed at the absurdity of everything they’d been through, everything expected of them, everything they’d shared and the fact that they were the only ones left to understand each other. Two men who’d hated each other because they’d both been fighting over what they both now hated having.</p><p>Porco watched Reiner laugh, something he almost never saw; it was thrilling</p><p>Porco pulled his hand out of Reiner’s pants. It was covered in come. He started to lick it off of his fingers.</p><p>“What are you doing?”</p><p>Porco glanced over, mid lick. “Huh?”</p><p>“Wash your hand.” Reiner pointed to the water pump beside the shed and then walked over to demonstrate by pumping the handle and shoving his hand under the water to clean it. “Do you just shove everything in your mouth?”</p><p>Porco blinked at the other man’s offence. “Didn’t you lick my come off Gail’s face?”</p><p>“Yeah I was trying to distract her from your mistake.” Reiner grabbed Porco’s belt and pulled his undershirt up to wipe his wet fingers dry with. “That’s filthy.”</p><p>Porco glared at him and continued to slowly lick his fingers clean, catching Reiner’s gaze, “Whine more, bitch.”</p><p>Reiner just winced at him as he put his sweatshirt back on. Porco finished getting the stickiness off his fingers and then fisted Reiner’s sweatshirt in his hand and pulled him down for a kiss, grinning. Reiner recoiled, shoving him away and trotting off.</p><p>“It’s your fucking jizz, you dipshit.” Porco called after him, then jogged to catch up. Reiner sped up.</p><p>Porco put on a burst of speed in response and Reiner was too slow to react. Porco’d always been better at sprinting. He paced him and caught him from the side, taking him to the ground in a tackle.</p><p>Reiner flexed under him and got Porco in his guard, hooking his ankles around Porco’s back. He didn’t make much effort to fight back, just stared up at Porco in annoyance.</p><p>In response Porco horked up a loogie and let it drip it in Reiner’s face, just like he’d done when they were kids and Reiner had managed to piss him off something fierce.</p><p>Reiner scrubbed Porco’s spit off his face with his fingers and wiped them on the grass, looking absolutely mortified as he let go of his guard and crawled backwards on his elbows out of the blast zone. Porco laughed at him. “You’re hilarious. You were sucking my face two minutes ago and now you’re grossed out at my spit.”</p><p>“Now I remember why I prefer women.” Reiner got to his feet. “You’re just being disgusting for the hell of it.”</p><p>“You want to stop?” Porco said, crossing his arms over his chest.</p><p>“Fuck off.” He started to jog back the way they came, shoving his hands in the front pocket of his sweatshirt. “I didn’t say that.” He called over his shoulder. “I don’t want your <em>words</em> in my mouth.”</p><p>Porco darted to his feet, grinning. “My <em>words</em>? Everything else is fine, huh?” When he caught up with Reiner, he bumped his shoulder against the larger man’s. After a few paces, Reiner bumped him back, saying nothing, and they jogged to their barracks in warm silence.</p><p> </p><p>—</p><p> </p><p>“Where’s the bigger idiot?” Zeke asked as he opened the door to Porco and Reiner’s shared room and poked his head inside.</p><p>“Bathroom maybe, I don’t know.” Porco said, waving him off.</p><p>Zeke stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. “I saw you and Braun running back from the training fields looking suspiciously pleased with yourselves yesterday.”</p><p>Porco’s eyes widened. “Uh…”</p><p>“Did you find yourselves a new source of trouble?” Zeke caught Porco’s jacket collar, pulling it down. “Yep. I figured as much.”</p><p>Porco flinched. Unless wounds broke the skin or were severe, the healing factor didn’t kick in by reflex. Superficial bruising he had to <em>remember to heal</em>. He pressed his fist to his forehead in frustration.</p><p>“How did you two manage to sneak a girl into the compound? Where the hell did you hide her?” Zeke turned around to sit on the edge of Porco’s desk. “I can’t believe she’d be willing to hike five miles up a mountain just for the pleasure of your company so you had to have got her past the gate somehow. You both are really pushing it.” Zeke narrowed his eyes in speculation then pulled out his conduct folio from under his arm, opening it. “Sneaking unauthorized personnel into a secure facility. I’m going to have to write this up. Pay dock for the both of you, my lads.”</p><p>Porco blushed. “There’s no girl.”</p><p>“Oh really? Are you going to tell me you got this sparring? Or are you two screwing around with each other?”</p><p>“Uh…” Porco repeated. He stared down at the surface of his desk, his face burning. Well, he might as well get punished for what he actually did. “Yeah. Sorta.”</p><p>“Unbelievable.” Zeke sighed. “I am sure I was not this much of a pain in the ass when I was your age.” He slammed the folio shut and shoved it under his arm.</p><p>“You’re not going to get us for gross indecency?” Porco asked, surprised.</p><p>“No. He’s too clever by half and I’m tired of playing cat and mouse with him. How about this.” Zeke leaned closer. “You keep it between the two of you and stop courting disaster and I’ll look the other way. Otherwise, I will write you both up and you can sleep in the barracks with the enlisted men and enjoy half pay for the rest of your tenure. You tell him that. Call it a compromise.”</p><p>“Why do I have to deal with him?”</p><p>Zeke looked at him impassively. “Because right now you’re the reasonable one and also you don’t have a choice. Good luck.” Zeke patted his shoulder and left.</p><p>Porco stared after him long after he’d disappeared, baffled. He felt annoyingly like an errand boy but even more annoyingly confused by the exchange. There were a lot of things about his world that Porco knew he would never understand, one of those things was that executable offences apparently existed on a spectrum from actually executable to negotiable.</p><p>
  
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Consider Zeke’s suffering having to chase after two horny young men, somehow making sure they don’t get some girl pregnant or cause a horrendous scandal. Particularly controlling Reiner who seems almost as good at gaming the system as he is. If the average Eldian schlub can score a Marleyan girl, guaranteed Warriors would have a line up of them. </p><p>Also, I head canon Porco as a power bottom and an extremely dominant one at that. Unlike Reiner whose life turned him into being a power top and really only is because he’s secretly a service top. :D </p><p>For those of you who are following “The Problem with Peace”, I’ll be updating again next week, just needed a break from plot-wise heavy lifting to explore some other ideas.</p><p>And by ideas, I, of course, mean porn. &gt;.&gt;</p>
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